AI and Digital Evidence in Indian Sexual Assault Cases: A Legal-Ethical Analysis
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https://doi.org/10.66871/trf-j.v1i2.047##semicolon##
AI forensics tools, Sexual assault investigations, Ethical considerations, Fundamental Rights, DPDP Act, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023सार
This research examines the integration of artificial intelligence in India's digital forensic landscape, with particular emphasis on its application in sexual assault inquiries. As India confronts escalating cybercrime rates and increasingly complex digital evidence, forensic laboratories in the country have begun implementing artificial intelligence driven solutions to process and analyse electronic data. The study investigates specific artificial intelligence tools deployed by agencies such as the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and state police cyber cells, including facial recognition systems, automated malware analysis tools, among others.
The paper encompasses this analysis in the instances of sexual assault forensics, where substantial backlogs and manual processing methods contribute to delayed justice. It discovers how artificial intelligence models, including automated biological evidence analysis, accelerated DNA matching, intelligent evidence prioritisation systems, and unconventional digital evidence processing, can potentially reduce evidence dispensation time from months to days, enabling faster filing of chargesheets within statutory limits. The research further examines how these technologies can be integrated with existing initiatives such as the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to create specialised pathways for rape and child abuse cases.
Ethical and legal concerns are a major aspect when the usage of AI in forensics is put forward. The paper will sketch how the new Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, deals with this amalgamation of AI and its interaction with India's constitutional framework, the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP), and the existing IT Act. Additionally, it analyses recent judicial attitudes toward digital evidence and also compares the usage of AI forensic tools in different countries and how the usage has helped the police and judicial authorise to speed up the justice process.
The research concludes by proposing a comprehensive ethical framework tailored to guide the responsible integration of AI in India's digital forensic ecosystem, balancing the benefits of AI, including drastically reduced evidence processing times, heightened detection competencies, and expedited judicial proceedings, with essential protections to algorithmic transparency standards and vigorous data protection safeguards. By potentially reducing investigation timelines from years to months, AI integration offers transformative potential for delivering timely justice to sexual assault survivors, which can resolve key loopholes in criminal investigations.
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